International Marathon Kicks off on Xi'an City Wall

Xi'an1234Apr 22, 2018

As early as March 30, the poster of the Xi'an City Wall Marathon was put on the Nasdaq screen at the US Time Square. During the 7-day pre-registration period, 31,048 runners submitted the application form, but only 14.49% were finally the lucky number.

On April 21st, the 2018 International Marathon kicks off on the Xi'an City Wall. With a shot fired by Xi'an municipal party secretary Wang Yongkang at 8:30 am, 5,000 runners from 32 countries started their exciting race.

After the 13.7-kilometer race ended, Wang Tao and Jian Muhua won the Champions of men's and women's groups, with a result of 41 minutes and 51 minutes, respectively. Besides, 30 additional handicapped participators also completed their race for 1 kilometers.

As early as March 30, the poster of the Xi'an City Wall Marathon was put on the Nasdaq screen at the US Time Square. During the 7-day pre-registration period, 31,048 runners submitted the application form, but only 14.49% were finally the lucky number. During the race, the runners were provided with attentive services, such as sponges, walnut cakes and water-supply stations sat at an interval of 1 kilometers.

Since 1993, the International Marathon has been held 23 times in Xi'an, an ancient capital that witnessed the rises and falls of 13 dynasties. This year, the competition is designed with cultural elements of the Han Dynasty (202BC - 263 AD). The national ritual ceremony tracing back to thousands of years ago held at the eve brought down the house. The medals designed according to "Yu Bi (a jade with a hole in the center) of the Western Han dynasty caused a sensation. During the race, about 4,000 audiences were arranged along the runway doing martial arts, playing Chinese shadow puppetry, performing paper cutting or showing other folk customs.

The race is also applied with various high technologies, such as Bullet Time, 3D dressing mirror and so on. Among them the most eye-catching is the block chain technology, which guarantees the permanent validity of runners' results. This is the first time such technology is applied to Marathon.

Taking exercises is the best way to relax brain. The Marathon held in this old city is expected to let global runners and fans not only feel the charm of exercises, but also know more about the history and technologies of Xi'an", says Mi Lei, CEO of CASSTAR (a Xi'an based national high-tech incubation platform), and a lead runner of the Xi'an high-tech lead runner group.